Dolphins expect 100th straight sellout

Posted by Michael David Smith on December 16, 2010, 12:43 PM EST

The Miami Dolphins have had an easier time than their fellow Florida franchises of selling tickets over the last few years. And although sellouts aren’t a sure thing for the Dolphins these days, they do expect to have the local TV blackout lifted with their 100th straight sellout Sunday against the Bills.

Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald reports that the team expects to announce another sellout today. The last time the Dolphins were blacked out in Miami was October 18, 1998 against the Rams.

The Dolphins may need help from the local CBS affiliate to get the remaining tickets sold, but they do expect to sell enough tickets to have the blackout lifted.

There haven’t been any blackouts in Miami yet this year. After Sunday against the Bills, the Dolphins have one more home game this year, next week against the Lions.

Also, I think it’s been a few years since they’ve needed an extension to get the sell out and it has been 12 years without a blackout at all so “although sellouts aren’t a sure thing for the Dolphins these days” seems rather odd. How could they make it a “sure thing” if the above doesn’t qualify?

If they’ve had 100 straight sellouts, that means they sold out the year they went 1-15. Makes it harder for the losing teams to argue they can’t sell tickets because their teams are losing. I understand people being unable to afford tickets because of the economy. But winning or losing shouldn’t have any impact on your loyalty to your team. The Dolphins sellout record proves that real fans stay true regardless.

Actually the Miami market makes for a unique circumstance: you have tons and tons of transplants. You also have fans of divisional rivals, and any other rival really, who are more than happy to plan a vacation-SLASH-away game trip because of the weather/locale. And finally you also have plenty of local businesses easily in the black who can afford to make sure they get over the hump when a blackout is a risk.

The largest impact on home attendance is not team success or loyalty — it is the local economy.

Yeah, I think a lot of home viewers don’t realize that (1) the orange gear is very popular, and (2) there is massive amounts of internal concession / club space where much of the crowd retreats to for some portion of the game.